I’ve been behind the ball this month (what’s new?) but finally posted September’s “Monthly Deal”. I wanted to draw your attention to it just to let you know it was a freebie this month! Just click on “monthly deal” in the navigation bar at the top to get it!
This fun, short clip discusses “unschooling” (not always the same as “homeschooling”) as opposed to “structured” schooling. Notice the psychologist’s incriminating remark about drop-outs…
Anyway, I love to think about and discuss the topic of education. We’ve had lots of discussions about rejecting the public school system on the basis of our faith, but what about merely educational merit?
Why do we think that one can only become properly educated by one certain formula, which, by the way, doesn’t have a great track record? And let’s ask an honest question…from a secular standpoint, was my education optimal? Did the curriculum, the method, the atmosphere offer me the best knowledge and skill sets? And if I conclude “yes”, is it fair to say that there is only one way to properly educate a child? Does the school system operate on a basis of what is best for learning, or on a basis of the only option of containing that many children who are all completely different with different interests, strengths and bents? Why is it so hard for us to admit there might be a better way of becoming educated…and where do we get our definition of education anyway?
I think we have boxed it in so much that the most “educated” can barely think outside the classroom. No inflaming of tempers intended here 😉 Just honest, open questions that I challenge you to consider.
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
G. K. Chesterton
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Ronald Reagan
“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
Abraham Lincoln
Terry at Breathing Grace did a great job articulating the urgency of the state of our country. We are simply obligated to understand what is happening and to use what power we have left to combat it. (“To him who knows to do right and does it not, to him it is sin.“)
“We interrupt this blog break to ask those of you who are not rich, white and male to please speak up so that you can retain your liberty! I hated posting this. I wish that our nation wasn’t too apathetic to see and care what is happening. This stuff should have been beaten back decades ago….
I am so sick of people painting this in terms of liberals and conservatives. This is so much bigger than that…”
Read the rest at Breathing Grace
MUST watch: Video of Mark Lloyd, our new Chief Diversity Officer, extoling the “exaggeration” of free speech.
Every year our home schooling looks different. That’s the beautiful thing…depending on the stages, seasons, needs and demands we can tailor our learning to fit those.
This year our oldest is taking an in-depth World History “co-op” class, taught by a friend/church member. She will be covering a lot of material and reading some heavy literature, but we are all looking forward to the challenge.
In addition to that, my husband and I talked about what the rest of her education should look like. Since we are such “relaxed learners“, it’s always a struggle to find the balance between academic expectations and our educational goals.
And with the assumption that the government will be increasingly more “involved” with homeschooling requirements, we have become a little more concerned with making sure we can jump through their hoops if required. I believe with a little forethought, relaxed learning can accommodate the possible need to be able to answer a test, and certainly we can wait until they are older to focus on that aspect.
I was so excited to find a few great websites that we will be using as her “tutors” this year. They are math.com, nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/ for Latin, and dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/area/literature/Terms/alliteration.html for teaching literary terms and uses (actually this site is all things related to English, grammar and composition). We still take a literature-based approach to learning, but we’ll use these resources to help fill in those testable areas.
Not only do these seem to be simple yet thorough instructional sites, she will be totally “self-guided” through her work this year, freeing me up to concentrate with the little ones more. She’s looking forward to the variety as well.
Just wanted to share those few gems with you. By the way, if you don’t already know, there is enough information and resources on line that you could get away with never buying anything. There are flash cards, writing paper, alphabet charts–I just printed off a US map that we’ll tape together and hang up–just about anything you can imagine is available for free!
(For more about relaxed learning, check out Think Outside the Classroom.)
We just got back from our “family vacation”.
How does a family of 10 take a cheap vacation? Ingenuity!
First, don’t own a pool. That way, your kids think swimming is the most awesome thing in the world.
Second, don’t vacation often 😉 Really, it’s all the more wonderful when you do.
Thirdly, don’t have cable or satellite. That way, a hotel room seems like a really cool place to hang out.
Finally, don’t get out much. That way, a continental breakfast seems too good to be true. My daughter points to the orange juice fountain and asks, with her eyes wide: “Is that orange juice?” “Yes.” “Is it F-R-E-E?”
For a much needed, short “vacation”, we took the kids a whole 30 miles away, and stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool, since we expected inclement weather.
My first concern was that we were going to have to pay for two rooms–the limit for one room was 5 people. This doesn’t help families like ours! So, I asked.
I called the hotel, told them we had “a unique situation” and that even if we paid for 2 rooms, my kids would all want to sleep in the same room, and she said “no problem”. Score! We’ve already cut expected expenses in half!
Then, we packed snacks and one night’s supper and lunch and ate in the room in our pj’s while we watched movies.
The night we went out to eat we ordered “The World’s Largest Seafood Platter” for $18.95 and split it between myself and all of the children. Aaron ordered his own 😉
We bought a few end-of-the year water toys on sale, loaded up, and you would have thought we took them to Disney World.
This would also work for a great winter get-away, since the pool is indoors.
So that’s our favorite family get-away idea…I think we’ll make it a habit. Oh, and we’ve also done the same thing for just 1 night as a spur-of-the-moment treat.
P.S. If you like the t-shirt, we have some for sale! Drop me a line.
Some of the comments from a recent post reminded me of a gripe I’ve had for awhile, though it’s a bit difficult to articulate. Running rampant in this culture is a false, guilt-associated belief that it is wrong to claim to be right about anything. I guess the core is humanism–believing that man decides what is right and wrong, and since every man is different, then every man determines right and wrong for himself, and if you say your way is right that flies in the face of every other person whose “right” is different from yours 😉
True, there are some things that are one person’s opinion/conviction of what is right. Then there are absolutes from Scripture that determine truth across the board.
It has all been blurred. In Christian circles, we aren’t even allowed to claim absolute truth as truth because of “offending someone” and/or “meddling”, or being unloving. (Forget the fact that we are commanded to “teach, exhort, admonish and instruct one another”.) And now any truth I don’t like can be easily discarded by claiming a different interpretation of Scripture.
But even on the issues that aren’t as black and white, aren’t we still creatures who should be discerning, searching and building our decisions based on what we believe to be right? And if we aren’t allowed to believe that one thing is better than another (and talk about it), then what? Aren’t we just floundering around? Contrary to what the social engineers of our day want us to think, all things are NOT created equal.
It would be like saying, “I know that road is longer and has road construction and would be far more inconvenient than this other road, but I know you like the long road and I wouldn’t dream of hurting your feelings by suggesting that you try this shorter, more efficient road.”
In my opinion, NOT to share my perception of the “better road” is the unloving thing to do.
Daja, from In Other Words, posted this a while back and I think it is BRILLIANT!
Ponder the post…
In reading a pro-life debate on a blog recently, someone intended to put the pro-life activist in her place by saying something to the effect of “You’re just never wrong are you? You just think you’re always right?”Why is that an insult to tell someone, “You think you’re right”? This is committing intellectual suicide! Well of course they think they are right and so do you and so do I! If you didn’t think you were right, then you don’t really have any belief system at all! I think it’s the kind of argument one adult gives to another when they’ve been backed into an intellectual corner. It’s akin to the kid on the playground who when he has nothing left to says says, “Really?! Well, I’m rubber and you’re glue….” or chants something like, “Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider, girls go to Mars to get more candy bars!”
Ouch. That really hurts.G.K. Chesterton sums up my feelings exactly (as he always seems to):
‘A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert–himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt–the Divine Reason….The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful of his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.
At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own. Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. The meek do inherit the earth; but the modern skeptics are too meek even to claim their inheritance.’ –Chesterton
And the way I figure it is that if something is worth believing it is also worth defending. And if you cannot defend it, argue it, or support it, for the sake of sanity–abandon it! And “I feel like….” is not a defense, an argument, or a support. Try again.”
How many times have I been to this place?
Broken, soul-prostrate, and begging for grace.
Bringing the same, ugly, flesh-covered sin–
Can I even ask You to pardon again?
It’s not that I think the fountain’s run dry,
(Foul I to that fountain fly!)
But in my flesh I have the fear
By now You think me insincere…
I say I hate the sin I bring
Yet it seems the one to which I cling!
Most Holy God, I praise Your name,
That you have for my rags exchanged,
A robe of righteousness–Your Son’s,
He paid it all, the work is done.
Unspeakable Love, You are why
I’ll spend my life–until I die,
Hating my sin and begging for grace,
No matter how often I’ve been to this place.
Kelly Crawford 8/2009
I was so very humbled when my friend, Kathy, who filmed my natural birth, sent this to me and asked me to post it. God’s tender mercies and the unraveling of the sweetest gifts keep being revealed to me day by day.
“I felt like I was on the outside looking in. My job was to take pictures and video. I have had four babies and they were all born c-section, 2 of them I was not even awake for, so I was pretty excited and nervous to be able to be in the room while Kelly endured so much pain and Ellia made her grand entrance. Although seeing this gift from God come into the world was one of the highlights of my life, there are so many other things I learned as I walked through this with Kelly and Aaron.
First– I’ve always been blessed and somewhat envious of the love and support of Kelly’s parents (and her brother). They are a part of her everyday life; few people have that. Not only are they close, but her parents are Godly people who share basically the same world view as Kelly and her family. What a blessing this is!
It was beautiful to watch her mom and dad stay the whole time she labored and birthed. They were attentive to her needs, and her poor mother who is so tenderhearted could hardly stand the pain Kelly was suffering. I don’t think she ever sat back and relaxed any…it was a long night! Her dad was a strong, yet kind, presence. The fact that her parents are actually married and there together is something that most of us do not have. The fact that they shared in her joy of *another* child is over the top! Towards the end of the video watch her dad’s face as he looks at his new granddaughter! Look at her mom’s face as she is glowing over Ellia in the warmer. It was just beautiful! Few families experience this!
Second- Aaron’s steadfast love and support! Oh my!!! (Aaron is a lot like my husband.) Aaron was right there every step of the way. When the labor heated up he rarely sat down. He was constantly massaging Kelly, heating her rice pack, walking with her, whispering words of encouragement for 15 hours! He was very, very strong, confident and calm! When Kelly was entertaining thoughts of meds he gently reminded her not to give in, although he hated to see her pain. He knew she’d regret giving in; he helped her push through those temptations. Aaron was so strong and gentle. He was a true servant to his wife through this and took command when he needed to (informing the nurses what they needed).
At one point during the night Aaron led all of us in prayer for Kelly. A few hours later he asked Kelly’s dad to pray…oh my!!!!! I about lost it then. How beautiful and MIGHTY it is to have a husband and father love you and come before the throne of God on your behalf… I cannot even find the words for this. This brings me to tears more than Ellia’s birth does.
When I left the hospital the next morning I was overwhelmed with gratefulness. And to be completely honest I had some jealously; jealously of the Godly love and dedication of her family. Kelly’s family is not perfect, they have issues, just as we all have. Even though her parents may not be 100% on the same page with her and Aaron on every issue, they do seek after righteousness, and the Crawford family reaps the rewards of that!
Some may say, “Well that’s good if you have a *kind* husband, or loving parents that are still married”. But do you know why she has that? Because her parents sought after God and desired to obey Him. They have lived their lives to honor God. Thus the blessings have been poured out on their children. This is how it should be. Even though they have their struggles and shortcomings, they press on to live a Biblical life!
People are critical of patriarchy (dare I utter THAT word here), but I think it is because they don’t see it being lived out in a Biblical manner. There are patriarchs that are not Godly, that rule with an iron fist, but this is not the way God ordained it. A true patriarch leads, yet serves; he protects and provides, yet loves with gentleness and kindness. This is God’s way!!!
So most of us do not have this heritage, but that does not excuse us from walking the path of righteousness. We have got to break generations of ungodliness, starting with baby steps in obedience now. Many women do not have a husband like Kelly’s or mine, but that does not give an excuse to disobey God’s commands. Yes, Kelly has much wisdom, but that is because of her Godly heritage, her diligence to search out God’s word and GOD’S GRACE!
It wasn’t just Kelly laboring, we were all right there with her. And although we did not feel her pain, we did share in her love for God and a desire to bring forth a Godly generation, to fill the earth and subdue it for Christ’s sake!”
A very humbled and grateful friend,
Kathy Brodock
Ellia Brynn Crawford
“God has answered”
Rejoicing that our sweet baby is finally here! I’ll post more details of my first natural labor later (when I feel like it 😉 I woke up in labor at 3 a.m. Tuesday and spent the day at home with labor pains starting and stopping–it was quite torturous emotionally, but not too bad physically. We headed in with much stronger contractions around 7 p.m. that night. Quite opposite what we were expecting, I was in labor through the night and didn’t give birth until around 10 am. Wednesday morning.
We’ve gotton some rest today, but need a lot more. Thank you SO much for your prayers…I’ll have more in a few days.